Gallery by Heather BelcherĀ
Fairlea – Never absent of drama, the latest installation in the Greenbrier East-Beckley rivalry didn’t disappoint.
Leading by as many as 11 points in the first half and trailing by 10 with under six minutes to go, the Lady Flying Eagles snapped their eight-game losing streak with a 55-50 upset win over Class AAAA No. 5 Greenbrier East Monday night in Fairlea.
With three different freshmen – Abby Dillon, Josie Cross and Mya Wooton – playing at least 20 minutes, each shined for the Flying Eagles but an explosive first half from senior Olivia Ziolkowski paved the way for the win.
Nine points and nine rebounds in the opening half from Ziolkowski helped the visitors to a seven-point lead at the intermission. It was what Beckley coach Brian Nabors was searching for and she delivered, finishing the night with 16 points and 13 rebounds, helping limit East all-stater Daisha Summers nine points.
“I thought she set the tone,” Nabors said. “She set the tone on both ends of the floor. She’s been doing a great job the last few games being a great leader for this team. I’m just happy for her to start having some success. Just for her to come out and show the proper leadership, I thought the girls got behind and followed her.”
Trailing 8-7 three minutes into the game, an 8-0 run – powered by four points each from Ziolkowski and Lataja Creasey – to close the quarter staked the visitors to a 15-8 lead.
A 3-pointer courtesy of Dillon gave the visitors their largest lead at 22-11 but an eventual layup from East’s other all-stater, Cadence Stewart, at the buzzer trimmed the deficit to seven going into the break. It was a glimmer of light in a half where the hosts shot 15 percent from the field on 26 shot attempts.
After East trimmed the deficit to two midway through the third quarter, the Flying Eagles countered with a 5-0 run before Stewart caught fire. The junior sharpshooter scored eight straight to give East its first lead since the first quarter, canning a pair of 3-pointers to go along with a layup.
It was a reflection of the quarter for Stewart who scored 14 of her game-high 24 points in the frame.
“I just got out of my own head and my teammates got me the ball in the right spots,” Stewart said. “I just didn’t want to lose so I heated up. We try to get the ball to the middle and when their defense collapses it really helps us to get the ball out.”
The burst from the junior coupled with a pair of buckets from Summers helped the hosts to a 39-36 advantage after a quarter.
The momentum carried to the fourth with a 7-0 run staking the Spartans to a 10-point lead but the young Flying Eagles weren’t consumed by the moment.
Dillon answered a Brooke Davis 3-pointer with one of her own and converted on a layup after stealing the following inbounds pass. A free throw from Wooton slashed the deficit to four and a pair of Ziolkowski free throws, following one from East’s Allie Dunford, made it a 47-44 game.
Dunford answered with her own pair on the other end but consecutive 3-pointers from Creasey and Dillon put Beckley back on top 50-49.
“Those shots showed guts and courage,” Nabors said. “We talk about all the time, that you never know when you’re going to be in a situation where you need to knock down a shot that we need to win the game or get us back in the game. I just know when they caught it they had confidence and didn’t even think about it. They let it fly and knocked them down. You’ve got to have confidence to play this game and that’s kind of what we’ve been lacking. We’ve done it in spurts but not for 32 minutes.
“We let teams off the hook sometimes and we did it tonight. We did it before the half. They score off two rebounds and make another run at us in the second half. I told them ‘So what? they got their run. Let’s stop it with defense.’ That’s what it’s about.”
The lead grew to three with Creasy and Cross splitting a pair of free throws but a missed pair from Dillon gave East hope. That was until Cross corralled the second missed free throw for the final of her six offensive rebounds, kicking it back out to Dillon who was fouled. The freshman was true on both, salting the game.
“Her youth shows a lot but it’s only going to help in the future,” Nabors said of Cross. “Josie’s a really good player and she has to play that type of role she did tonight and be able to be the type of scorer where when we draw defenders she has to be ready to receive the ball. She just had a really great game but she grabbed that key rebound that I thought sealed the game.”
Greenbrier East head coach and W.Va Governor Jim Justice was unavailable for comment after the game.
On the night Dillon led Beckley with 17 points while Creasey added nine to go along with eight assists.
The Flying Eagles shot 40 percent from the field while limiting East to 26 percent shooting on 57 shot attempts. Stewart was the only Spartan in double figures with 24 points. She was also the only player on her team to shoot above 50 percent from the field.
“Great team effort,” Nabors said. “I told them one thing I was really, really proud of is they never wavered when we got down 10 points. They made that run, and made a couple runs when we had control of the game but they never looked back and stayed focused. They wanted to win so bad and I’m so proud of how they handled themselves. They were getting some hard fouls – some caused us to turn the basketball over but they just stayed in there and stuck through it and listened to our coaching staff by being strong with the ball and we made plays when we needed to.”
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B: 15 8 13 19 – 55
GE: 8 8 23 11 – 50
Beckley
Lataja Creasey 9, Olivia Ziolkowski 16, Josie Cross 5, Abby Dillon 17, Adriana Law 4, Mya Wooton 3, Somalia Nelson 1
Greenbrier East
Allie Dunford 3, Cadence Stewart 24, Caroline Dotson 4, Brooke Davis 8, Daisha Summers 9, Layla Pence 2
3-point goals – B: 4 (Dillon 3, Creasy 1); GE: 5 (Stewart 3, Dotson 1, Davis 1).